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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Block, L. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
New York Times bestselling author Lawrence Block returns with another riveting thriller.
Mystery Grandmaster Lawrence Block has enthralled readers for more than three decades with his novels featuring the lovable burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, Keller, and
Author Notes
Lawrence Block is the author of the popular series' featuring Bernie Rhodenbarr, Matthew Scudder, and Chip Harrison. Over 2 million copies of Lawrence Block's books are in print. He has published articles and short fiction in American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, GQ, and The New York Times, and has published several collections of short fiction in book form, most recently Collected Mystery Stories.
Block is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times, the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe award. In France, he was proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has been awarded the Societe 813 trophy twice. Block was presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana, and is a past president of the Private Eye Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Matt Scudder, bestseller Block's extraordinary private detective, has been around for almost 30 years, and if his aging has been neither gentle nor graceful, it's certainly been eventful. In his stellar 16th outing (after 2001's Hope to Die), the 60-something Scudder proves to be as tough and resilient as ever when faced with the slickest, sickest killer to ever test his mettle. Fans won't be surprised that the killer is linked to the unresolved murders of Hope to Die or that Elaine and Scudder may become the fiend's target. The narrative smoothly shifts between Scudder's point-of-view and the thoughts and actions of the killer, whose ingenuity, daring and pure viciousness sear the pages. Aware of the danger but without a clue to the person behind the threat, Scudder and Elaine are forced into a protective siege while Scudder uses all his skills to probe the mystery. Series fans will welcome the familiar characters and places that have become such an important part of Scudder's universe: TJ, Mick Ballou, Grogan's Bar, the AA meeting spots. Add them together with some brilliant twists and one gets a thrilling, satisfying concoction brewed by a master storyteller in top form. Agent, Daniel Baror at Baror International. (Mar. 1) FYI: MWA Grandmaster Block has won numerous Edgar and Shamus awards and recently began his first full-time job in 40 years as an executive story consultant on the ESPN series Tilt!, which debuted in January. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
For Matthew Scudder's 16th case, and his first in three years, Block borrows the time-honored pattern of the sleuth whose hearth and home are menaced by a killer from his past. Like his friends, Scudder is watching the shadows thicken while he inches toward retirement. But first he takes an unofficial case for an acquaintance, checking out the bona fides of a suitor who's suspiciously secretive. Meantime, a man identifying himself as Yale psychiatrist Dr. Arne Bodinson drops into a Virginia prison to interview Preston Applewhite, who insists against all the evidence that he never saw the three boys he's been convicted of raping and killing. The portentous atmosphere hanging over the scenes between Bodinson and Applewhite is so thick that most readers will intuit the true relationship between the two men, but that's just the point: Block is less interested in springing surprises than in evoking the kind of dread of melodramatic threats that's only an inch from the abiding terror of death in all its shapes. Soon enough the shadowy killer strikes close to the hero, and from that point on it's war without quarter between Scudder, his wife Elaine, his assistant TJ, and the solicitous but not terribly helpful NYPD, and the killer, resurrected from Hope to Die (2001) for a return match. Another powerful meditation on mortality in thriller's clothing. As Scudder puts it, "There's always another funeral to go to. They're like buses." Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This fine entry in the Matt Scudder series provides some closure to the story line of Hope to Die (2001) but at tremendous personal cost to the New York P.I. Scudder fans who expected to find some hard-boiled literary comfort food shortly after 9/11 should have known better. Block, who seems to pick up his various series characters only when he has something fresh and interesting to say about and through them, defied the genre's expectations by letting an inhuman killer get away at that novel's end. Scudder gets another shot at him here, but it's a be careful what you wish for situation for him and for his readers, who get plenty of chapters from the psycho's POV to help them get their hate on. As the harrowing tale unfolds, Block showcases an aging Scudder who, having emerged from his early days of drunken alienation both sober and centered, suddenly finds he has everything to lose at precisely the moment when he might have slipped too far past his prime to save the day. It's suspenseful, blood-soaked, and achingly good.--Sennett, Frank Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In a Virginia prison, a man awaits execution for the torture and murder of three young boys, a crime he denies to the very end. After the execution, one of the witnesses-the sole person who knows the truth-heads back to Manhattan to attend to unfinished business. Meanwhile, ex-cop and investigator Matthew Scudder is semiretired, content with the fact that his toughest battles are now with his own sobriety. But the killing of his wife's best friend, along with a series of seemingly random murders, leads Scudder head-on into a confrontation with a killer he ran out of town years earlier. Are these crimes connected to the Virginia execution? Are Scudder and Elaine the next victims? In his 16th Matthew Scudder novel, the prolific Block offers another mesmerizing tale of psychological suspense. To the traditional elements of a crime mystery, Block adds the subject of aging, as Scudder faces his own mortality. Recommended for most crime fiction collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 11/1/04.]-Ken Bolton, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.